Celebrating 40 years of independent publishing
The Overlook Press is an independent general-interest publisher, founded in 1971. The publishing program consists of nearly 100 new books per year, evenly divided between hardcovers and trade paperbacks. The house was launched by owner Peter Mayer as a home for distinguished books that had been ”overlooked” by larger houses. At the time Mayer was at
the helm of one of them, Avon, and would go on to a twenty-year tenure at Penguin, which he eventually headed as well. He joined with his father Alfred, a retired glove manufacturer, to nurture Overlook Press, supervising business from Manhattan in his off hours, while Fredy ran the upstate operation, picturesquely housed in an old apple shed on Overlook Mountain in Woodstock. Milestone books in those early years ranged from Industrial Design by Raymond Loewy and Milton Glaser’s Graphic Design, to the medieval martial arts treatise turned business bestseller, A Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Mushashi. The publishing formula proved reliable, and now Overlook has nearly 1000 titles in print. Our fiction includes works by espionage novelists Robert Littell, Gerald Seymour, and Charles McCarry; mystery writer Susan Hill; Southern humorist Charles Portis; German writer Walter Moers, and Irish American writer Peter Quinn. Overlook also publishes the international phenomenon Penny Vincenzi. In recent years, Overlook has developed an impressive list of top-flight writers such P.F.Kluge, John Crowley, R.J. Ellory, and Robert Coover. History is a mainstay of our non-fiction list and notable books include Paul Cartledge’s Thermopylae, Robert Irwin’s Dangerous Knowledge, and Charles Freeman's A.D. 381.. New books of current political and social interest are Gigi Durham’s The Lo**ta Effect, Irene Levine's Best Friends Forever, and Mark Booth’s controversial The Secret History of the World. Another cherished mission is to revive and bring to new audiences classic books and authors. We are renowned for our stylish editions of the works of P.G. Wodehouse, Charles Dickens, as well as bringing back the beloved Freddy the Pig Series by Walter R. Brooks. Overlook has a proud tradition of illustrated books in a wide variety of categories, from the splendor of In the Footsteps of Abraham and Milton Glaser’s brilliant Drawing is Thinking, to entertaining works of pop culture The Elvis Encyclopedia and Church Signs Across America.
